Indian police circulated sketches on Saturday of three suspects thought behind a series of blasts outside courts in three cities that left at least 13 people dead.
NEW DELHI: Indian police circulated sketches on Saturday of three suspects thought behind a series of blasts outside courts in three cities that left at least 13 people dead.
Police said the blasts that also wounded more than 40 people in Uttar Pradesh on Friday afternoon were targeting lawyers.
Uttar Pradesh home official Javed Ahmed told that sketches of three suspects in the bomb blasts had been released but declined to comment further on the investigation.
Officers are also questioning a cyber cafe owner in connection with a threatening e-mail sent just before the bombs, which were transported to the courts on bicycles and then abandoned, exploded, media reports said.
"Now the Islamic raides which is going to take place against lawyer within minutes," said the message, received by some television news channels.
The e-mail accuses lawyers in the state of beating up people falsely accused by the police of terrorism, adding that the advocates "refused to take their cases and didn't allow others to take their cases."
It also warned that Indian police would be attacked next, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Saturday.
Lawyers in Uttar Pradesh have repeatedly refused to defend Islamic militants facing charges of orchestrating terror attacks in the state.
In Lucknow -- one the three cities where the blast occurred -- lawyers last week allegedly beat up three suspected Islamic militants accused of plotting an attack on Rahul Gandhi, son of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.
"We owe a duty to defend our clients," Uttar Pradesh bar council chairman Amarendra Nath Singh told on Saturday, condemning Friday's blasts as "an attack on democracy and the judiciary." But he added that some local bar associations may have decided independently not to defend certain suspects.
"Ultimately lawyers are also human beings. When you have terrorism going on for two decades, people are very much hurt," said Singh, adding that previsions should be made for trying accused terrorists away from the public.
Although police say the bombs targeted lawyers, analysts say Islamic extremist groups could be attempting to stoke religious tensions to derail an India-Pakistan peace process over Kashmir.
Meanwhile, police in New Delhi were investigating reports that media received a second e-mail, this time on Saturday, which threatened more blasts across India and warned Pakistan's visiting cricket team to go home.
"Appropriate action is being taken on reports of a fresh email threat," a home ministry spokesman said.
Pakistan's cricket team is currently in New Delhi and currently playing the first of a three-match test series.
In the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, where nine people including three lawyers died on Friday, the state police chief said the blasts were similar to other recent explosions in the state.
Singh said earlier that the bombs were transported to the courthouses of Varanasi -- where a string of powerful explosions killed 23 people in March 2006 -- Faizabad and Lucknow by bicycles which were then abandoned.
India's leaders condemned the blast, including home minister Shivraj Patil, who has been faced media criticism for inadequate action over a series of bomb attacks in the last year. "I strongly condemn the blasts," Patil said. "The government will continue to fight terrorism in a resolute manner.
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